That's How You Know
by barricadebabes
Summary: In which Eponine introduces Combeferre to Disney movies


Their first adventure starts while they are unpacking her boxes. Eponine is in the bedroom, trying to find space in the closet for her clothes and resisting the urge to go kiss Combeferre. _Again_. He is in the living room, alphabetizing the DVD collection. He picks up one depicting animated lions on the front and remarks that he's never actually seen that movie. Eponine runs into the room and her jaw drops.

"What?! You've never seen the _The Lion King_? How is that even possible?"

Combeferre shrugs. "I've never seen any Disney movies. My parents weren't big fans of television. Their attitude towards cartoons was especially condescending."

Eponine looks at him with a mix of disbelief and pity on her face. Then she takes the DVD from him and walks over to the TV.

"You get the popcorn and I'll find us a blanket."

"Eponine, we can't." he sighs, "We aren't finished unpacking."

"C'mon. We can finish that later. It's not as if I have all that much with me. And you just really need to see this movie, ok? My world can't go on turning until you do."

And so he makes the popcorn and settles on the couch with her. At first he is more fascinated by the rapture in his girlfriend's eyes as she watched the animals on the screen sing about life being a circle. The next thing Combeferre knows Simba's father is hanging off a cliff and he's grasping Eponine's hand so tightly his knuckles are white and she squeezes his hand sympathetically. And that's how it begins.

They fall into a routine. Every night after dinner they pick a movie together. And every night as his arms automatically draw her closer to him, Eponine feels that she can breathe easier than ever before.

The truth is that she's craved familiarity like this for as long as she can remember. Everything in her life up until this point has been faulty. Unreliable. But Combeferre is different. His steadiness was actually what drew her to him. Ever since she was familiar enough with all of the Amis de l'Abc to realize that nobody was completely at ease until Combeferre had walked into the room, she wanted to depend on him too. Which was something completely new and frightening for a girl who never let herself rely on anyone or anything other than herself and Disney movies.

They're more than a guilty pleasure. Disney films are her escape, even when she is at an age most considered too old for children's movies. They always take her back to her own _once upon a time. _The time before her parents turned into a pair of wicked stepmothers; when she was innocent and happy and most of all, their little princess.

On the TV screen Hercules is singing.

_I would go most anywhere to feel like I belong._

Eponine knows she's done that. After so much time on her own, she's finally here with the only two things that have ever felt real and palpable to her. She can finally apply the word _home _to something.

Combeferre knows facts. He knows that Walt Disney Pictures have produced 52 animated films (not including spin-offs). He knows that Walt Disney won 22 Academy Awards and 7 Emmys. He can tell you who discovered a planet and named it after Disney. But he's never known why people call the movies "magical". Not until Eponine shows him how special they can be to a person.

Disney is home for Eponine. For Combeferre, it means finding magic.

He knows he's found magic when Eponine replays the song Part of Your World three times and he imagines a younger Eponine watching this part and identifying with the little mermaid that wanted something more than the life she'd been given. Magic is knowing that she got a new start too.

One day she arrives at the apartment early one evening and Combeferre can be heard performing an exceptionally passionate rendition of I'll Make A Man Out Of You in the shower. She makes a point of using the expressions "swift as a coursing river" and "mysterious as the dark side of the moon" over the next couple of days. Magic is the sound of her laughter, even if it's directed at him.

Home is what they all feel they've found one Saturday when the gang comes over to join in the Disney marathon. It turns out they're all particularly fond of Victor Hugo so they watch _The Hunchback of Notre-Dame. _Home is nothing without family and she knows for sure that this is her family when she leans her head on Enjolras' shoulder after feeling him tense up next to her during God Help the Outcasts. Or when she braids Cosette's hair as Courfeyrac and Bahorel argue over what movie to watch next (Courf wins, of course. His pick is _Beauty and the Beast)_. Her family is Musichetta, Bossuet, and Joly who are all cuddling on the other sofa. It's Feuilly complaining that movie is so much different from the book. Eponine resists the urge to go hug each one but silently thanks whoever sent them to her and for knowing that with Les Amis is where she belongs.

Once they've all left, Eponine is just starting to clean up the mess in the kitchen when Combeferre realizes there is something more important they have to do. They slow dance to Tale as Old as Time. That's magic.

But even magic can't stop them from running out of movies to watch. The last one is _Enchanted. _Eponine is so busy dreading the inevitable ending that she barely notices when Combeferre's eyes widen during one of the songs and that he sits up in his seat. When the movie ends, he tells her he's going to study and that she should just go to bed without him. Instead he stays up making a list.

The next day, Jehan arrives at the bookstore she and Cosette work at with a flower arrangement.

"Cosette went on a coffee run. I'll give them to her." She reaches out for the roses. Blue. Marius usually sends red ones. Hmm.

"Actually, these are for you." Jehan smiles.

"What?" Eponine checks the card. It's true. The handwriting is Combeferre's.

"… _my words become stained with your love. You occupy everything, you occupy everything. "_

Jehan sighs. "Neruda. You lucky girl. Anyways, I suggested a different color but he insisted that they should be blue."

"Of course. Blue is my favorite color." She grins.

Blue is the color of Combeferre's shirt when he picks her up from work later. It matches his eyes perfectly.

The rest of the week is full of small surprises. He stops by the bookstore one day to take her out to lunch. And as if that gesture wasn't nice enough on its own, the lunch turns out to be a picnic at the park. Eponine has never had a picnic. It turns out to be even better than she imagined.

On another day, he leaves her post-it notes hidden throughout the apartment. They all have short little messages. _You have a beautiful smile _is the first on she find, stuck to the milk carton. _You make me happy _is found on the door to the bathroom. _I love you _is attached to the front of his shirt.

The day after that Eponine is at work wondering what has gotten into her boyfriend when Cosette begins screeching at Jehan, "Turn up the volume, now! Ponine, come here… hurry!"

"This next song goes out to a certain Mademoiselle Eponine. From C. Much love to you both."

Cosette and Jehan are beaming at her but she can't focus on what they're saying. What the hell has gotten into Combeferre?

At closing time Combeferre is standing outside the bookstore, holding more blue roses. She lets him in and begins her interrogation.

"Ok. It's not that I don't appreciate all of this, because I really do. I love it. But I'm confused. When did you become so romantic?" she asks.

Combeferre smiles and begins humming a tune that sounds familiar. Very familiar.

_That's how you know! That's how you know! He's your love._

"Oh. My. God. That's what this is about?"

He stops humming. "Yes. Because I love you. Actually, because you make me believe in love… and magic. You needed to know I am going to always love you."

Eponine says nothing but leans in to kiss him instead. _That's how she knows_… that with him she's found her home.


End file.
